Today’s REI Classroom Lesson

Jason Fritton talks to us today about how American Dream that everyone has been accustomed to over the past few decades is changing into being more independent in your wealth and creating your success, especially for real estate investors.

REI Classroom Summary

Instead of making enough money to be comfortable, the American Dream for real estate investors is more focused on building and diversifying wealth and not working for a boss.

Listen to this REI Classroom Lesson

Real Estate Investing Classroom Show Transcripts:

Mike: Welcome back to the FlipNerd.com REI Classroom, where experts from across the real estate investing industry teach you quick lessons to take your business to the next level. And now, let’s meet today’s expert host.

Jason: Hi everybody, I am Jason Fritton. I’m the CEO and Co-Founder of Patch of Land, an alternative online marketplace lender for real estate. I’m the host today for REI Classroom and I’ve been asked to talk about how the American dream is changing these days for real estate investors.

Mike: This show is sponsored by PassiveRental.com.

Jason: As we all know, in the past what the American dream has really meant was just a nice little home with a white picket fence and a reliable job and just a level of security in life in general. That’s traditionally what the American dream has meant. Just a level of kind of a middle class existence, but secure and reliability.
As we all know, that’s changed, particularly in the last generation. It’s no longer enough just to be secure. Just to be . . . you know, have a good job and have a little house. Now, it’s evolved to mean something that’s completely different. And really the world of real estate investment is central to that nowadays.
In my opinion and what I’m hearing from successful people around the world these days, is that the American dream is no longer just security, it’s more about a level of independence. There’s a level of disconnection from maybe this . . . your traditional, you know, not to be insulting, but wage slave life where you’ve got a level of independence from other companies, from a boss.
As you all know here with real estate investing, that’s kind of a central theme to what we do these days. So real estate investment has been traditionally one of the ways that people have built wealth. One of the most successful, reliable ways to build wealth and to be able to accomplish now what this new traditional meaning of the American dream really is.
So with real estate investing, both owning properties personally or through REITs or real estate investment ETFs, it allows us to continue to develop assets, continue to develop wealth in a way that’s significantly different from what we’ve been able to do in the past. We were able to diversify our funds and our assets into tangible hard assets that in the worst case scenario where the stock market crashes, there may be some depreciation in value, but you still always have something that you can go throw a rock at in the first place, in the worst case scenario. But there’s always something there that’s backing up your investments.
Since real estate has always been such a very, very lucrative investment class in the past and now with the level of volatility that we’ve been seeing especially in the last decade, real estate investment has taken on a central theme towards the American dream.
That being said real estate investment, alternative investments in general should still be realistically a minority percentage of your portfolio. But because it’s so reliable, because it’s so understandable, it’s a very, very visible and transparent aspect to your total net worth, towards your total assets, towards your investment portfolio. Real estate itself according to the experts realistically should only account for about 5% of your total portfolio.
However, I think that we’re starting to see that change. Because we’re starting to see increased volatility, because we’re starting to see flight to safety in general terms, real estate is really becoming much, much more important. With the advent of portals and services like FlipNerd, like Patch of Land in general, where you can have a great deal of . . . get an interconnected nature to real estate investing these days, it’s becoming less, in my opinion, dangerous for real estate. You’re able to take a much wider view into real estate investment. You’re able to invest across a much larger geography in the different MSAs in different markets than you have been in the past.
So while in the past perhaps it’s been a very minority position in your portfolio, you’re going to start to see here especially over the next 5-10 years, your real estate investing take a much more important approach to your total portfolio. As the American dream is transitioning from just having a traditional job and a house, into being more independent, you’re going to see the concept of being a real estate investor and a real estate entrepreneur being much, much more important.
Thank you everybody, I’m Jason Fritton, I’m looking forward to talking to you next time.

Mike: PassiveRental.com is your source for turnkey, done-for-you rental properties. If you’d like to be an investor and not a landlord, please visit PassiveRental.com to learn how to purchase cash flowing, professionally managed rental properties in the hottest rental markets across the country. We can also help connect you with financing for your next property. Invest the easy way today, and get started by visiting PassiveRental.com.
Please note, the views and opinions expressed by the individuals in this program do not necessarily reflect those of FlipNerd.com or any of its partners, advertisers or affiliates. Please consult professionals before making any investment or tax decisions, as real estate investing can be risky.
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Jason Fritton is Co-Founder and CEO of Patch of Land, a leading alternative solution for real estate financing that brings borrowers and lenders together through a simple online interface. Jason originally conceptualized Patch of Land in early 2011 as a means to help rescue parts of Chicago devastated by the real estate crash. He has been involved with crowdfunding legislation since the beginning and worked with Congressmen to advocate for the crowdfunding exemptions that were written into the 2012 JOBS Act.